Is Elon Musk Boring?

The Tesla CEO may or may not be joking about tunneling under Los Angeles
By Michael Harthorne,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 25, 2017 4:16 PM CST
Is Elon Musk Boring?
Tesla CEO Elon Musk isn't boring...yet.   (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Say what you will about Elon Musk, he's not boring. But apparently that could change next month. The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX tweeted last month about traffic in Los Angeles "driving me nuts" and said he was going to make a tunnel boring machine and "just start digging." He insisted at the time that he was serious. Musk was back to talking tunnels Wednesday, when he tweeted that he's planning "to start digging in a month or so." CNBC reports the plan is apparently to start drilling at SpaceX in order to tunnel under Los Angeles and get around its notoriously awful traffic.

While it appears possible—probable?—that Musk is joking (he's dubbed his tunneling business The Boring Company), USA Today points out the man did send rockets to space and popularize electric cars. If anyone is going to successfully tunnel under Los Angeles, Musk would be the one to do it. But he would have to get around laws, permitting, and what CNBC calls "simple scientific realities." The Verge reports it's more likely that—if not joking—Musk is simply trying to set himself up to take advantage of President Trump's promise to throw money at infrastructure projects. In fact, Musk met with Trump this week. (More Elon Musk stories.)

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